Ink-jet devices in and of themselves are well known through e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,437 to SWEET et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,988 to CRICK; U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,721 to KALTENBACH; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,275 to SWEET. Typically, prior art ink-jet devices provide a linear array of fluid-jet orifices formed in an orifice plate from which filaments of pressurized marking fluid (e.g. ink, dye, etc.) are caused to issue from a fluid supply chamber. An individually controllable electrostatic charging electrode is disposed downstream of the orifice plate along the so-called "drop-formation" zone. In accordance with well known principles of electrostatic induction, the fluid filament is caused to assume an electrical potential opposite in polarity and related in magnitude to the electrical potential of its respective chargingl electrode. When a droplet of fluid is separated from the filament, the induced electrostatic charge is then trapped on and in the droplet. Thus, subsequent passage of the charged droplet thorough an electrostatic field having the same polarity as the droplet charge will cause the droplet to be deflected away from a normal droplet path towards a droplet catching structure. Uncharged droplets on the other hand proceed along the normal path and are eventually deposited upon a recording substrate.
Recently it has been proposed to utilize ink-jet devices as a means to print patterns or the like on textile materials, attention being directed to U.S. Ser. No. 428,490 to GAMBLIN filed Sept. 28, 1982, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,202, the entire disclosure thereof being expressly incorporated hereinto by reference. In order to achieve fine printing of patterns on a textile substrate, it is necessary to utilize an orifice plate having a linear array of very small orifices sized in the range of, for example, 0.00035 to 0.020 inch diameters. A problem exists that with use of such small-sized orifices, turbulent or multiaxis fluid flow in the fluid supply chamber adversely affects droplet formation. That is, turbulent flow in the fluid supply chamber could lead to inconsistent droplet charging and deflection and thus less perfect printing on the substrate.